SIM Volunteers:THANK YOU!In recognition of National Volunteer Week, we want to thank SIM's national and chapter volunteers for all that you do for SIM. Our volunteers are one of our greatest assets and you contribute directly to the success of SIM. Please reach out and thank the people in your Chapter that help to make SIM a great organization.

1. Please provide an overview of the SIM New York Metro chapter.NY SIM’s goal continues to focus on being valuable for our members. There continue to be more and more opportunities for interacting with our peers through vendor events, online interactive mediums and competing professional organizations. read more...

2. What are your goals for your term as the President of the chapter?My goals as President are threefold. First, to work with my board, our committees and our members to constitute the fundamental and specific purposes for our Chapter and ourselves. read more...

3. What are the hottest trends in the industry?Although I could share my current thinking on specific technologies in answer to this question, I think the fundamentals such as cloud, social, mobile and the Internet of Things are well known. read more...4. What challenges is your chapter currently facing?New York City is an expensive place to hold Chapter meetings. Our costs for our monthly chapter events are close to $150/person. To build our Chapter’s membership ranks with high quality senior technology leaders compels us to constantly reassess the value of our programs to our members. Always!5. What is the one piece of advise you will give the next President of the SIM New York Metro chapter?Be clear in the organization’s purposes (and yours). Build a great board filled with talented, passionate people that get things done. Hold yourself and your team accountable.

Every time one of my staff returned from an RLF session he talked enthusiastically about the books being read, the great exercises and all he was learning.The change in style, broadened perspective and growth that was occurring was also very apparent.I thought to myself this is great stuff, sounds like fun and I could benefit! I nominated myself, sold it to my boss and attended the next year’s class. One of the best decisions I ever made and I heartily recommend the RLF program to senior IT leaders for themselves as well as for their staff.

Marlowe Farrar, former Director of IT Haemonetics Corporation

Another CIO, after sponsoring people in several RLF forums, sent a letter to a current participant's spouse in order to share his high regard for RLF …

This is an awesome leadership development program.I went through it and there were several defining moments for me in the program.Most importantly, I learned so much about myself, about what motivates me, about what fulfills me in my life, and how important it is to try to find ways to feel fulfilled in my work.It truly transformed me.It made me a better employee and leader, but more importantly, I believe it made me a better person ... a better husband … a better father.

… and to share his appreciation of the commitment required and the strong value proposition …

My wish is that your husband has the same experience – I believe he will.While the RLF will not require tons of travel, it does need some, and I appreciate that you will need to “hold the fort” while he is away.In addition, the amount of reading is not insignificant but is part of the required commitment – it’s well worth it and that will take more of his time away from you and your family.So … I am trying to say that I appreciate your part in his development as well.Thank-you.

I’ve already reached the pinnacle.I don’t aspire to be the mayor of Charlotte or the governor of North Carolina.So why do I care about SIM or SIMposium?Why did I lobby to bring the SIM signature event to Charlotte?And why did I volunteer to chair this event?
These are great questions.

You may not know this, but I joined the SIM community AFTER I became the CIO of the City of Charlotte.And, believe me, I didn’t join SIM because I had a lot of spare time on my hands…
What I’ve discovered throughout my journey is that it isn’t about getting ‘connected’ with this executive or that one.It’s about making meaningful connections, period.If I can help a young mid-level manager in their career, it’s a good day.If I can convince someone that STEM is a critical issue for our industry – I’m on top of the world.I enjoy making meaningful connections and I enjoy watching the seeds I’ve planted grow. read more...

This award recognizes members who contributed to the growth, advancement and excellence of SIM at the chapter level. If your chapter selects a Chapter Member of the Year, you can nominate the same person for the 2015 SIM Leader of the Year!

The deadline to submit a nomination is Monday, August 3.We hope to have at least one nomination from EVERY SIM chapter! Thank you in advance for your kind dedication, leadership and teamwork to help ensure that we and you can recognize your strongest SIM contributors within the last 12 months.

2015 SIM Paper Competition
Each year, the Society for Information Management recognizes innovative business initiatives that use IT to drive measurable results. If you have researched an important and successful IT-related business initiative, the SIM 2015 Paper Competition Committee invites you to submit an abstract describing this initiative. The work described must be implemented and it must have had a significant impact on the organization involved. Winning papers will be a collaboration between academics and practitioners. Since SIM's focus is toward executive management, the work should describe an initiative of interest to senior IS executives.

The abstract submission deadline is Friday, May 22. Click HERE for more information.

Experience SIM’s Advanced Practices Council First-HandSIM's Advanced Practices Council(APC) for senior IT executives will hold its next meeting May 5-6 in Chicago. The agenda will include presentations on: (1) leveraging enterprise big data and predictive analytics; (2) governance of predictive analytics across the firm; (3) optimizing staff resources; (4) scaling digital innovation across the business ecosystem; and (5) the CIO Coalition for Open Security. If you are a senior IT executive interested in membership, Madeline Weiss, APC's Director, invites you to come as a guest. You can reach her at madeline.weiss@simnet.org.

This year’s study will launch on Sunday, April 12, 2015.If you don’t have a personal invitation in your inbox on Monday the 13th, please check your spam folder; and if you find the email, please add noreply@qemailserver.com to your safe list.If you have any issues, please contact Leon Kappelman at 940-565-4698 or kapp@unt.edu.

Participation is easier than ever.You can access the questionnaire using the personal link sent to you by email or by accessing a general-purpose link on SIMnet.org (login required).Look for the banner on the SIMnet homepage.

With insights from her past, Trisha will share stories on her path to becoming a CIO.She eagerly sought opportunities of increasing responsibility and learned a lot by trial and error.Along her journey, she formulated a number of “how to's” for leadership success including growing confidence from doing things you don't like to do. PleaseRSVP for the webinar to hear Trisha speak about her life and professional success and the valuable skills you could implement in your own career! read more...

SIM is GrowingSIM is growing in new cities! As we welcome our newest Chapters in Louisville and Albany, we are also working on helping key people develop a SIM network in Rochester, Wichita, San Fran/Bay Area, and Oklahoma City. Please reach out to people in your network in any of these cities and encourage them to get connected to the SIM network.